A Few Surprising Turns by Ira Sadoff

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 23, 2016   A Few Surprising Turns   Ira Sadoff

Ultimately the air Is bare sunlight where must be found The lyric valuables —George Oppen   A few surprising turns follow us everywhere. I was shopping for something to replace what I once felt. Weren’t there buildings there where we once lived, fully furnished and looking out on the sea? Didn’t we distill from neighbors the necessary codes and gestures? At the core we were all traipse and meander, governed by fill in the blank. But it was here, the ramshackle Cape Cod with rattling shutters eaten away then revived, mended and painted over. It takes just a scent of sea spray to bring back the once was: skimpy, the bikini, the beach, the conversation, the veil of summer, skimpy the engine that chugs toward love, skimpy the cover of the universe. Thanks to this fragrance we can sit under our favorite cedar, or picture the old dreaded barber shop. Now I want my hair touched, and my cheek. I want the salt rubbed out with a handkerchief.            Copyright © 2016 Ira Sadoff. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “I remember driving past my parents’ first house and recalling how humble it was—they were restless and their pleasure in the place didn’t last long—but I discovered, as I wrote the poem, I didn’t feel nostalgic about the house itself, now so changed. Rather the scent of the sea served as a trigger, flooding me with fleeting sense impressions. It turns out I wasn’t longing for the past but for a state of mind, the capacity to feel the full force of being alive. I hope the poem’s a tribute to the frailty and vitality of imagination and its power to transform us.” —Ira Sadoff   Ira Sadoff is the author of True Faith (BOA Editions, 2012). He teaches in the Drew University MFA program in poetry. Poetry by Sadoff   True Faith (BOA Editions, 2012) "Myself I Sing" by George Oppen "The Bear at the Dump" by William Matthews "My Friend Tree" by Lorine Niedecker Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038